Ok, so after taking stock of the benefits of the various pugilism/brawling advantages, I'm putting this out there for critique. It's essentially modeled after the School of Combat, but redressed for brawlers. I've tried to keep it simple and flexible, and I believe it plays nicely with the rest of the brawler advantages. So, bash away at it. And please suggest a point cost. I'm thinking 3 Points since it mirrors Student of Combat, but I'm open to other rationale.
School of Hard Knocks
Much as a duelist and his blade, you’ve studied and refined the finer points of pugilism. As such, when you make a Brawl Risk to punch, kick, head-butt or otherwise injure another character using nothing but your own body, you may perform a number of fighting maneuvers each round just as a duelist might.
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You may perform a Jab to deal a number of Wounds equal to your Ranks in Brawling.
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In unarmed combat or against blunt weapons (clubs, cudgels, staves), you may Deflect to prevent a number of Wounds equal to your Ranks in Weaponry.
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When taking this Advantage, you must choose either one of two Duelist maneuvers: Feint or Bash. You may perform these maneuvers as part of a Brawl Risk.
Looks like you've got a mistype under the second bullet point, as you list Weaponry when pretty sure the intent was Brawling.
Personally, I'd allow Deflect to be used against any non-ranged attack that deals wounds, but that's just based on just how common bladed weapons tend to be in the setting.
3pts for the cost sounds pretty good, though I'm tempted to say let it grant both Feint and Bash as maneuvers. They're useful, but not nearly as potent as Riposte or Lunge, both of which Student of Combat can allow. Or could have this require the Boxer Advantage before purchasing, granting the four manuevers but still only costing 3pts.
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Revision 0.2
After doing a bit of research and giving some thought as to how all of this plays into the whole, I've made a few decisions:
1) Having a Parry equivalent is silly when most unarmed combatants are going to be doing 1:1 wounds.
2) Most big boxing moves come from combinations of blows being rained down on an opponent. So it makes more sense (to me anyway) to give players tools to endure and set up their opponent for a big finish.
All that said, here is the revised Advantage, plus a new one:
School of Hard Knocks
Much as a duelist and his blade, you’ve studied and refined the finer points of pugilism. When you punch, kick, head-butt or otherwise injure another character using nothing but your own body, you may perform a number of fighting maneuvers each round just as a duelist might. First, you may perform the Duelist maneuvers Feint and Bash with the Brawl skill. In addition, you know how to Slip a Punch. Use this Maneuver when you spend a raise to prevent a wound from an unarmed attack to deal an immediate wound to your attack. You may not perform the same Maneuver in consecutive Actions; there must be an additional Maneuver (or other action) between repeated Maneuvers.
Vicious Combination
Your Hero must have the Boxer Advantage in order to purchase this Advantage.
In a fight, you know how to set your opponent up to receive a sequence of devastating blows. When you finish a Round with more raises than your opponent, you may spend all of your remaining raises to deal a number of Wounds equal to your Brawl plus the Raises spent.
Is there a reason this isn't just a new duelist 'style', with a slight renaming of the maneuvers and including some variation of your Vicious Combination as the 'style bonus maneuver'?
It doesn't seem like it's a bit stretch to allow all the current maneuvers with Brawl instead of Weaponry given the relaxed rules on combat in the new edition.
Well mainly because I wanted to go for a slightly different vibe than your typical duelist academy. Sure, I could through out a Finnegan School Redux that allows you to use all the maneuvers with Brawl instead of Weaponry. But where's the fun there? The idea here is more about endurance, momentum, waiting for a gap in your opponent's defenses for a flurry of blows that sends him reeling. I'm also trying to avoid the issue Mike Curry has mentioned before: that all attempts at puglisim became martial arts weilded by warrior monks.
There are some flaws in the design, however. It's not ready for prime time. And, in the end, I may just throw up my hands and write a Finnegan School and be done with it.
Don't get me wrong I like the idea of the endurance, momentum, etc.
I was just looking at your new version and saw that it worked like maneuvers for a fighting school but you only get Feint and Bash. I'm not sure why there isn't a 'strike' equivalent for trying hard hitting punches. Lunge makes a lot of sense as well. Riposte and Parry could be allowed to be used on swordsman, since you could basically parry the arm/hand that's attacking you instead of the weapon as would be the case with steel on steel. It just seems like it's creating special circumstances when the game could support it more organically. You don't even need to call it Finnegan. It could just be a style of bare knuckle fighting passed down in the bars and back alleys of the cities.
I really like the special Advantage, which could become the school's signature move. I think it needs some clarification of what it means to 'end the round with more raises than your opponent." I don't think there's rules for 'holding' Raises when it's your turn to act, you either use them or say you're done for the round generally (Unless I'm mistaken on this). And rounds generally end when everyone's out of Raises or there's nothing left to spend them on. Perhaps you could implement a 'saving Raises' special for this maneuver.
Benefit: Instead of spending a Raise when it's your turn to act in an Action Sequence, set the Raise aside (it may not be used for anything other than this maneuver). At the end of the Round, for every Raise you've set aside, deal a number of Wounds equal to your Brawl + Strength + Raises set aside. These Wounds may not be prevented or avoided.
Basically you're gaining momentum throughout the fight and then at the end of the round you lay down the hurt. It keeps it a bit more in the player's control rather than basing it on how many raises the opponent has (Since effectively they are down to 0 since it's the end of the Round usually).
John
Harliquinn, your signature maneuver makes sense thematically as a pressure fighter, waiting out your opponent and blocking their attacks until they've exhausted themselves and you spring into your assault.
It was meant to be the opposite of Lunge. I did forget to add in "This damage cannot be blocked or soaked" since you're waiting a long time